Apple's iOS 6.1 has a number of serious bugs, which may force users to choose between upgrading and jailbreaking. Many users have noticed a sudden and drastic battery drain, and at least one has complained of an overheating battery.
The problem lies in 6.1's interaction with Exchange servers, ZDNet explains; it logs repeatedly and excessively. Exchange servers are used primarily with corporate e-mails, and one iPad owner had to shut down Outlook and restart his device before the problem went away, server-side.
Windows IT Pro's Tony Redmond says that it's possible the problem lies in Apple's mail app code that calls ActiveSync to synchronize with the user's Exchange mailbox, which could associate the root of the problem with calendar events.
After upgrade, devices apparently go into a loop and end up generating about 50GB worth of transaction logs, Redmond explained. The problems seem to arise when devices are used with Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2007, and he assumes the same for Exchange 2013. "You’d think that Apple would have learned after the iOS 6.0 calendar hijack fiasco," he wrote.
Some IT administrators have resorted to temporarily banning iOS 6.1 devices from the Exchange server altogether, to keep the problem from crashing the server for everyone else-- coincidentally the same advice Redmond offered about how to deal with this issue because "it just doesn’t make sense to allow some rogue devices to wreak havoc on your infrastructure."
This comes as bad news to corporate iOS device owners who might be planning to join 7 million other users who have already jailbroken their phones.
The Evad3rs Team, four hackers behind the tool, have warned that iOS 6.1.1 is available in public beta now (the emphasis this time is on the Japanese version of maps) and the bugs they exploited to jailbreak 6.1 may have already been patched out. They suggested that anyone still stuck using iOS 5.x upgrade to 6.1 quickly before 6.1.1 is officially rolled out, and they lose their chance to jailbreak.
Incidentally, this is the exact opposite of the advice that Vodafone UK offered to its customers in a text message-- hold off on upgrading to 6.1 as there's no way to return to a previous version-- though the carrier did not specify the exact problem that prompted it to send out this advisory.
Vodafone's message to subscribers read: "We're aware of an issue caused by Apple iPhone 4s handsets that have been upgraded to iOS 6.1 which impacts performance on 3G.
"Some customers may occasionally experience difficulty in connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or to connect to the Internet. Apple is working on a solution to their software issue. These connection problems are intermittent," says Cnet.
Theoretically, this would not affect non-corporate users, but for others it may come down to a choice between buggy freedom and reliable battery life until Apple fixes this problem.
